The Netherlands: 3rd national free daily in January
The third Dutch national free daily will launch in January and will be called De Pers (The Press). Distribution will be through public transport, universities, office buildings, petrol stations and retail shopping centers. Door-to-door distribution will be the second phase. There are, however, no fixed contracts with these distribution points yet. Competitor Metro has a deal with railway operator NS until 2009 while retail shops and petrol stations sell newspapers themselves, which means that they will ask for compensation for lost sales at least. Universities offer a good audience but competition with other free publications is substantial. Initial circulation is 200,000 – 800,000 is the goal for end 2007. Both Dutch free dailies Metro and Spits distribute almost 500,000 each while De Telegraaf, the leading paid newspaper in the Netherlands distributes 700,000 copies.
There will be 36 full time journalists working for the paper (comparable to Metro and Spits) apart from the same amount of free lancers. Every journalist is required to write one third of a page each day and is expected to deliver a scoop every three months. The average age is 33, almost 50% is female. With columnists the paper was not that lucky: five men with an average age of 50. Press agency Novum is providing national and international news for the paper that also has syndication contracts with foreign publications like The Economist and The Independent. De Pers will only offer a minimal online presence because the paper does not believe in user-generated content. Letters to the editor, however, will be online only. The paper will not print editorials. The launch will not be accompanied by a major advertising campaign because the paper is expected to sell itself. A full colour front page ad costs €141,000.
Printing the paper appeared to be problematic after a deal with publisher PCM for printing and distribution was cancelled last month. Printing in Friesland (regional paper Leeuwarder Courant) or Amsterdam (former communist paper De Waarheid-printer Dijkman) are options.
Financer Marcel Boekhoorn is one of the most wealthy people in the Netherlands, he made money by selling a chain of bakery shops but mostly by selling his shares in telecom operator Telfort to the former national Dutch telecom network KPN. Until January of 2006 he was sponsoring professional soccer team NEC Nijmegen. In 2000 he bought Ouwehands Dierenpark (Zoo) were he still keeps his office.
Sources: De Volkskrant, Adformatie, De Nieuwe Reporter, De Pers